Then waved his handkerchief?

PISANIO

And kissed it, madam.

INNOGEN

Senseless linen, happier therein than I!

And that was all?

PISANIO

No, madam. For so long

As he could make me with this eye or ear

Distinguish him from others he did keep

The deck, with glove or hat or handkerchief

Still waving, as the fits and stirs of ’s mind

Could best express how slow his soul sailed on,

How swift his ship.

INNOGEN

Thou shouldst have made him

As little as a crow, or less, ere left

To after-eye him.

PISANIO

Madam, so I did.

INNOGEN

I would have broke mine eye-strings, cracked them,

but

To look upon him till the diminution

Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle;

Nay, followed him till he had melted from

The smallness of a gnat to air, and then

Have turned mine eye and wept. But, good Pisanio,

When shall we hear from him?

PISANIO Be assured, madam,

With his next vantage.

INNOGEN

I did not take my leave of him, but had

Most pretty things to say. Ere I could tell him

How I would think on him at certain hours,

Such thoughts and such, or I could make him swear

The shes of Italy should not betray

Mine interest and his honour, or have charged him

At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight

T’encounter me with orisons—for then

I am in heaven for him—or ere I could

Give him that parting kiss which I had set

Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father,

And, like the tyrannous breathing of the north,

Shakes all our buds from growing.

Enter a Lady

LADY

The Queen, madam,

Desires your highness’ company.

INNOGEN (to Pisanio)

Those things I bid you do, get them dispatched.

I will attend the Queen.

PISANIO

Madam, I shall.

Exeunt Innogen and Lady at one door, Pisanio at another

1.4 ⌈A table brought out, with a banquet upon it.⌉ Enter Filario, Giacomo, a Frenchman, a Dutchman, and a Spaniard

GIACOMO Believe it, sir, I have seen him in Britain. He was then of a crescent note, expected to prove so worthy as since he hath been allowed the name of. But I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration, though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side and I to peruse him by items.

FILARIO You speak of him when he was less furnished than now he is with that which makes him both without and within.

FRENCHMAN I have seen him in France. We had very many there could behold the sun with as firm eyes as he.

GIACOMO This matter of marrying his king’s daughter, wherein he must be weighed rather by her value than his own, words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter.

FRENCHMAN And then his banishment.

GIACOMO Ay, and the approbation of those that weep this lamentable divorce under her colours are wonderfully to extend him, be it but to fortify her judgement, which else an easy battery might lay flat for taking a beggar without less quality. But how comes it he is to sojourn with you? How creeps acquaintance?

FILARIO His father and I were soldiers together, to whom I have been often bound for no less than my life.

Enter Posthumus

Here comes the Briton. Let him be so entertained amongst you as suits with gentlemen of your knowing to a stranger of his quality. I beseech you all, be better known to this gentleman, whom I commend to you as a noble friend of mine. How worthy he is I will leave to appear hereafter rather than story him in his own hearing.

FRENCHMAN (to Posthumus) Sir, we have known together in Orléans.

POSTHUMUS Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still.

FRENCHMAN Sir, you o’er-rate my poor kindness. I was glad I did atone my countryman and you. It had been pity you should have been put together with so mortal a purpose as then each bore, upon importance of so slight and trivial a nature.

POSTHUMUS By your pardon, sir, I was then a young traveller, rather shunned to go even with what I heard than in my every action to be guided by others’ experiences; but upon my mended judgement—if I offend not to say it is mended—my quarrel was not altogether slight.

FRENCHMAN Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of swords, and by such two that would by all likelihood have confounded one the other, or have fallen both.

GIACOMO Can we with manners ask what was the difference?

FRENCHMAN Safely, I think. ’Twas a contention in public, which may without contradiction suffer the report. It was much like an argument that fell out last night, where each of us fell in praise of our country mistresses, this gentleman at that time vouching—and upon warrant of bloody affirmation—his to be more fair, virtuous, wise, chaste, constant, qualified, and less attemptable than any the rarest of our ladies in France.

GIACOMO That lady is not now living, or this gentleman’s opinion by this worn out.

POSTHUMUS She holds her virtue still, and I my mind.

GIACOMO You must not so far prefer her fore ours of Italy.

POSTHUMUS Being so far provoked as I was in France I would abate her nothing, though I profess myself her adorer, not her friend.

GIACOMO As fair and as good—a kind of hand-in-hand comparison—had been something too fair and too good for any lady in Britain. If she went before others I have seen—as that diamond of yours outlustres many I have beheld—I could not but believe she excelled many; but I have not seen the most precious diamond that is, nor you the lady.

POSTHUMUS I praised her as I rated her; so do I my stone.

GIACOMO What do you esteem it at?

POSTHUMUS More than the world enjoys.

GIACOMO Either your unparagoned mistress is dead, or she’s outprized by a trifle.

POSTHUMUS You are mistaken. The one may be sold or given, or if there were wealth enough for the purchase or merit for the gift. The other is not a thing for sale, and only the gift of the gods.

GIACOMO Which the gods have given you?

POSTHUMUS Which, by their graces, I will keep.

GIACOMO You may wear her in title yours; but, you know, strange fowl light upon neighbouring ponds. Your ring may be stolen too; so your brace of unprizable estimations, the one is but frail, and the other casual. A cunning thief or a that-way accomplished courtier would hazard the winning both of first and last.

POSTHUMUS Your Italy contains none so accomplished a courtier to convince the honour of my mistress if in the holding or loss of that you term her frail. I do nothing doubt you have store of thieves; notwithstanding, I fear not my ring.

FILARIO Let us leave here, gentlemen.

POSTHUMUS Sir, with all my heart. This worthy signor, I thank him, makes no stranger of me. We are familiar at first.